JPEG-XL is the next-generation royalty-free image format. Specifically designed to deliver visually indistinguishable compressed images, JXL is over 60% more efficient than JPEG and much better at retaining detail for high-fidelity images than video-codec-based WebP, AVIF and HEIC. In terms of decoding speed, JXL can be decoded nearly 10x faster than HEIC and more than 20% faster than JPEG.

JXL is an image format of mind-numbingly large numbers. Each JXL image can be more than 1 trillion megapixels in resolution — while supporting progressive decoding and without grid boundaries. Each pixel supports 32-bit colour — 32 bits per channel, for up to 4100 channels (4 of which are reserved for R, G, B, A). In other words, a JXL image can represent up to 300 undecillion colours. By the time these specs need an upgrade, we would hopefully have moved on to holograms.

Safari, macOS Quick Look, many professional artists’ tools and now the Gnome ecosystem support JXL. On this note, I’ll go back to waiting for Chrome and Firefox.